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In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest:

"I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ‘normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."

Jenny’s readings are standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they are to have her sign their books. Furiously Happy appeals to Jenny's core fan base but also transcends it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family―and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let's Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy―and who doesn't want a bit more of that?

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of September 2015: Jenny Lawson follows up her marvelous debut Let’s Pretend This Never Happened with her determination to be furiously happy: she will seize the strangest and most glorious moments of her life while she stares down her depression, severe anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and much more—and dares it to stop her. Furiously Happy is not only a battle cry but a delirious seesaw of a memoir. One moment you swoop upward as Lawson relates her attempts to hold a koala in Australia while wearing a koala costume and explains her quirky love for taxidermied animals (who must be dead from natural causes only), and you’re giggling like a three-year-old. Then your stomach drops like an artillery shell when Lawson exposes the dark side of her mental illnesses: trying not to cut herself and holing up in her bedroom for days on end. The ups and downs make this a difficult book to read all in one go. However, Lawson uses both her hilarious and heartbreaking episodes to camouflage so many life lessons and biting observations. (A poignant example: when cancer victims don’t respond to medication, no one blames the cancer victim; people with mental illness don’t get the same respect.) This is a book you’ll want to savor. Whether or not you too suffer from depression, you’ll turn the last page fired up by Lawson’s conviction that you can be furiously happy no matter what life hurls at you.--Adrian Liang

Review

Praise for Jenny Lawson:

"We’re living in an era of bestselling books by female comedians… But Lawson’s book needs no lovable, familiar face on the front cover…She’s unapologetic, candid, outrageous, and the book reaches new levels of hilarity because of it." ―Entertainment Weekly (A)

“Jenny made me laugh so hard I feared for my safety! I think that's how she was able to get past my defenses and make me feel more okay about myself.” ―Allie Brosh

“You'll laugh, wince, writhe in discomfort, cry, then laugh again…But the two things you'll never do is doubt Jenny's brilliance or her fearlessness…She's changing the conversation one rented sloth at a time.” ―Brené Brown

“Lawson's self-deprecating humor is not only gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate; it allows her to speak...in a real and raw way.” ―O, The Oprah Magazine

“Take one part David Sedaris and two parts Chelsea Handler and you'll have some inkling of the cockeyed humor of Jenny Lawson...[She] flaunts the sort of fearless comedic chops that will make you spurt Diet Coke through your nose.” ―Parade

Many laughs and even more heart. Jenny Lawson is my spirit animal. This gets awkward when you realize the taxidermied baby raccoon "Rory" is hers. :)

If you struggle with anxiety and depression or chronic illnesses, you may recognize elements of Jenny's journey as your own. It's not likely though that her life experience matches your own - her childhood was unconventional to say the least.

As I read this eagerly (my boyfriend and I often read together each night) I recognized both her struggles and her beautiful approach to life and struggling with mental illness. Furiously happy - when you are feeling well, filling your cup to sustain you through the darker times. It works.

I wish I could buy this book for all my friends, and I may still do so. Jenny Lawson is a bit broken, but in the best way--the kind of broken that reminds you that it's okay to be strange and sometimes have a difficult time coping with the world. There will be bright spots, too, amid the darkness.

This is her second book, but you don't really need to read the first book first. Though you should, it's hilarious. This one is a little less biographical and straightforward, a sort of collection of essay chapters about what it means to be "furiously happy." An excellent read for the lost, strange, and struggling--or those who love them.

I am sure I would have appreciated this book more if I were a follower of Lawson's blog. As it is, I came in cold, and it is an odd set of juxtapositions indeed.

It's very funny in parts. It's also disjointed, so the funny is often preceded or followed by very serious issues indeed, and I got something of a whiplash effect from that pacing. It's closer pacing in a book than it'd be on a blog, where essays are separated by time rather than a page or 2.

In short, while I am not sure who is the target audience here, I am reasonably confident I am not a part of it.

Bought it, read it, laughed my butt off! Yes, we are all a bit nuts. And yes, we should all learn to live furiously happy. Started reading it over the phone to my sister and she was laughing so hard that I sent her a copy. Mentioned it to a friend and she texted me that she bought it based on my description and she too was laughing. I thank the author for sharing such a personal story to help us all! We read this for a book club choice and most of us were all-in. Some book club members didn't read the book but were determined to read it after the meeting because of how we were laughing.

Your previous book has still not left my purse. I loved this book. It's become like a daily reference and security blanket for me. I've been getting more dark days lately and find myself in bed with this book reading and crying.But it does help immensely reminds me I'm not alone. These feelings will pass. Depression lies. And there are people out there who would listen and care about me. When I can get it in paperback it's added to the purse as well. My hard cover copy stays by the bed.Thank you for creating this world where broken people can come together and you help us with your blog . They have saved me more times then I should admit. But I'm still here because you've reached out in your words ❤

What a hilariously moving and authentic read! I'd like to read even more by this author. While I didn't always directly relate to some parts of the story, I found gold in the words she wove together, a connection to parts of my life I had buried pretty deeply. Parts that I sometimes forget about or am ashamed to admit are parts that have made me who I am today. What a brave and selfless person she is for putting this out there for the rest of the world's enjoyment and benefit! I feel as if I am also part of the wave she is riding, the roar and mantra of people out there who are determined to help themselves and those around them understand and believe how much better the world is because they are in it! Loved the book! Bravo!!

Jenny Lawson tells it like it is from one who knows best, herself. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Things is exactly that, straight from the hip and plenty of quirky and whimsical day to day experiences that Lawson has seen through out her life. But most of all, faced her challenges head on, health issues and ways to cope that came in the form of sharing those experiences with family, husband Victor and mother as well as the creatures that have found a place in her life, Hunter S. Thomcat, Rory the Raccoon pictured on the front cover of the book, and a cornucopia of other animals living or taxidermy.

As one reads each passage and chapter one of the questions that may arise, is this senseless blabber? Probably, readers that are not accustomed to something completely different or delving into the realm of empathy, what Lawson writes about may not be understood. The key factor, relax and enjoy her stories and carry a heavy sense of humor. Readers familiar with stand up comedy or a wacky sitcom, this book may appeal to the curious.

Furiously Happy may provide a lesson to readers with the least sense of humor, there will most likely be a chuckle or two or laughter. And in essence, Lawson shows that she as well as many people have the ability to be humorous and to laugh at one's self. A highly recommended book for those that would like to find out.

I've not loved a book this much in a long time. I found this on prime days and for some reason the raccoon on the cover just made me get it. I have laughed SO hard during the book~yet you know the subject can be deep at times. Not a read for kids, but a very good one for any adult that's ever had anxiety issues!Humor ROCKS in this.There is a book Jenny Lawson put out first, so I'm reading them out of order, but I went and picked up the first book before I was even done with this one I loved it so much!